MAG 61: holy cow

[jazzfish]

rydra_wong has been raving about the podcast The Magnus Archives for, oh, awhile now. I've avoided it because my experience with audiobooks has been mostly mildly negative: I have trouble processing people talking at me. I blank out for five or ten seconds and miss bits.

But I do alright with radio plays. They're generally not something that I'd seek out, but something about, I don't know, multiple voices? The pacing of the story, being written for audio instead of for print? Sound effects? Whatever it is, it takes some effort but I can generally handle audio dramatizations alright. I still miss things but it's less likely to be critical to my enjoyment.

I drove down to Vancouver for last week. I started off listening to Serial Box's sci-fi police procedural Ninth Step Station, because I know a couple of the authors... but given current US events I really couldn't deal with a police procedural. So when I stopped in Williams Lake for gas, I poked at my phone for a bit and eventually loaded up The Magnus Archives.

I listened to it the rest of the way down. And at random times during the week, and all the way back up.

It's really good.

It's a horror anthology. The general conceit: Jonathan Sims is organizing the archives of the Magnus Institute, a task that involves recording statements that people have made about their encounters with the supernatural and attempting to verify those statements. Each episode is mostly one person's story, and at the end Jonathan comments (usually quite skeptically) on any corroborating information the Institute is able to find. In general, episodes are standalone stories: as the series goes on a number of linking threads start to develop. There's a larger plot involving the Institute, and I believe each season (there are/will be five all told) has its own arc as well.

(Relatedly, it turns out that apparently I like horror, at least the more cerebral and unsettling kind.)

I've just finished listening to episode 61 over dinner. Most of the episode's an enjoyable callback to / continuation of one of my favourite early episodes. Then at the end it suddenly veers off into a different branch of the mythos, in a way that I was entirely not expecting. Wow.

I am, I think, having more fun with this than I have with any media in a very long time. I'm deeply curious as to where it's going.

Comments

[shadowkat]

I've avoided it because my experience with audiobooks has been mostly mildly negative: I have trouble processing people talking at me. I blank out for five or ten seconds and miss bits.

Same. My mind wanders when people talk at me. I don't do lectures well at all.

But, I agree - if it's more than one voice - it works better.

Hmmm...the Magnus Archives sound interesting. I like cerebral and unsettling horror quite a bit. (Although life is pretty horrifying at the moment.) And like you, I can't do police procedural s at all. I tried Perry Mason on HBO and gave up after fifteen minutes of it.

[jazzfish]

One positive side effect of switching to an English major in college was that the only lecture courses I had were freshman-level, so I never had to deal with any actually difficult material presented in a format I had a lot of trouble absorbing. (There were lectures in English but they were a lot more personal and had a lot more interaction with the class.)

The Magnus Archives is for the most part stories told by survivors, so it's heavy on, oh, implication and suggestion. There's some grotesquerie, certainly, but that's not the core of it. It /is/ mostly just one guy talking, but it works for me. I think that's partly because Jonathan Sims just has a great voice. And it probably helps that episodes are short, around 15-20 minutes of actual content. I highly recommend at least trying it out: I really liked the second episode, and the fourth was the one that hooked me.

I enjoyed the heck out of The Wire when I first watched it ... five? years ago. I'm not sure I could get through it now.

[shadowkat]

I went to a small liberal arts college - where class size was no bigger than 30 students, and mostly just 10-15, sometimes 5. Focus on discussion not lecture. Also, English Major and Cultural Anthropology Minor - so that helped. Did Psychology for the Science/Math component. So, limited number if any of multiple choice tests, emphasis on writing, research and analysis. Law school, however, almost did me in - it was huge lecture halls and multiple choice tests for the most part, with a few internship, apprentice style hands on courses, and research/writing. They'd geared it for the Bar Exam - which is a timed multiple choice test with short essay.

I may try The Magnus Archives - sounds interesting. My attention span is relatively short of late.

I enjoyed the heck out of The Wire when I first watched it ... five? years ago. I'm not sure I could get through it now.

Same. I loved it several years ago - I think about five or ten? Can't remember. But I couldn't watch it now. Although it is very topical to what is happening at the moment - and kind of foreshadowing.

[davidgoldfarb]

This sounds a bit like the SCP Foundation — if you're not familiar with that, you might take a look at it. (Warning: possible big time sink.)

[jazzfish]

Interesting. I can see where that could be a huge timesink... but it's not grabbing me. I do have a mild aversion to crowd-written projects, so it's partly that, but... I don't know. Curious.

[rydra_wong]

Apparently the original pitch for the show was "M. R. James meets creepypasta".

Writer Jonathan Sims (not to be confused with fictional protagonist Jonathan Sims, to whom he gave his own name, in a move he has since come to regret) has said he had a big creepypasta phase, including being an "avid reader" of the SCP Foundation.

So -- the influence is there!

[rydra_wong]

*appears with big shiny eyes*

IT'S SO GOOD, ISN'T IT???

[jazzfish]

:D :D :D :O :O :D

I am not yet through S2, and I am already starting to get uneasy about what the future holds for everyone. It's great.

[rydra_wong]

and I am already starting to get uneasy about what the future holds for everyone.

That is the correct response, yes. *g*

It's been such a lifesaver having a wonderful new canon like this to fixate on and enjoy during Current Events.

[sorcyress]

Any idea if there are transcripts available? My auditory processing is bad enough that I won't even try audio stuff, unfortunately.

[jazzfish]

You're in luck! I cannot vouch for their integrity, but a spot-check looks right to me.

(I do recommend listening to the beginning of ep1 at least, just so you get a sense for how annoyed Jonathan can sound. :) )